Day 151, Malý Trna – Karcsa Becsked

Weather: 🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️🌤️
Lunch: 🥪🥪🥪🥪 (4 out 5, in the shade next to the dyke with bread from the bakery in Satoraljaujhely)
Track: 🇸🇰🇭🇺 (2 out of 5, track through dusty fields)
Milestone: Slovakia ✅
Campsite: ⛺⛺⛺ (3 out of 5, flat spot in a small forested area)
Name of followed trail: E3

I go get some breakfast at the shop while mark makes sure that Annemieke can send our package. My watch refuses to show the waypoints, so I also need some time to solve that (I didn’t, by the way…try again tomorrow)

We leave a bit later than we hoped, but around 9.00 we are on our way. It’s a warm day, but not too bad.

The trail is not interesting today, long straight stretches of dirt road through the fields. At the start we see some vineyards and even a wine-barrel-shaped lookout tower. After that, the fields become dry and mostly empty. We walk through the sleepy town of Slovensky nove Mesto, and cross the bridge I to Hungary!

After a month of hiking Slovakia, it’s time for a new country. Goodbye Slovakia, thank you for all the great adventures we had and the new people we met. It’s been tough at times, but we look back on this month with fondness.

We enter Hungary and go into Satoraljaujhely to find a supermarket and a bank, to get Hongarian Florinths.

We meet a friendly woman who asks where we’re from, and find quite a few little shops in the centre of the town, including a few bakeries! That’s good news! We get some nice buns to bring for lunch, and walk our of town, into the Hungarian countryside. So far, we like Hungary 😁.

We continue our walk through dusty fields, now on a long dyke, lined by some trees. We have a lunch break after 16 kilometers, but we’re not even halfway today. Progress seems to be a bit slow. eventhough the terrain is flat and we try to keep a good pace. So after our first taste of Hungarian bread (positive experience 😋), we continue.

We cross a bridge and go through a sleepy village, back into the fields. The trail is empty of people, but it’s well marked with blue markers.

In the fields we see a lot of birds, birds of prey in different sizes, and big birds flying in circles together that look like storks, but then black… My 3 favourite young birdwatchers from the Netherlands might know what they are. (so Jaël, Juda en Joas, let us know what you think!)

We walk the last kilometers to a village to get some water there. We ask a friendly man in our best sign language for water. He immediately understands that we’re thirsty, and shows us his outdoor tap. Later, he comes out with beer and a bottle of water.

Mark gets the beer, I get the water. Later he comes out with a shot of something green in a Smirnoff bottle, for the both of us. “Nasdravje!”

We thank the man for his hospitality and continue to our campspot. Before we leave, Mark gets a can of beer for the road 😁😂. What a warm welcome to 2 strangers asking for water! We think Hungary wants to make up for the boring landscape in this region..🤔

We find a spot for our tent in a small forested area next to the fields. Here, we make dinner and have a beer to make a toast to our arrival in Hungary!